Delve deep into the Cave, and maybe yourself while you&#Array;re at it...

Welcome to The Cave. It's a fun, interesting and fairly challenging experience that every adventure and puzzle game fan should play through more than once. I say "more than once" because The Cave's real beauty shines through on the second play-through, and like Forrest Gump said before me, "That's all I got to say about that... Because I don't want to include spoilers in my video game review." Ok, so I may have paraphrased a bit on the end there. Moving on!

What exactly is The Cave? The Cave is a puzzle/adventure game from the creator of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion, Ron Gilbert. Backing this experienced adventure game creator is Double Fine, the studio that brought you Grim Fandango and a personal favorite of mine, Psychonauts. With a pedigree like that you should be expecting a robust, fun, and funny few hours of gaming, and that's exactly what you'll get... Mostly.

You'll enter The Cave with your choice of three characters out of a cast of seven. A knight, a hillbilly, a time traveler, a scientist, an adventurer, a monk, and a set of not so adorable twins will be your vessels through The Cave. Oh, and the eighth, non-playable character is the Cave itself. Yes, the Cave who's depths you're delving into is also the narrator of this tale of explorers searching for what they desire most. Don't be fooled; these travelers are less than noble in their quest for a sword, a job title, and a sarcophagus, among other things. Selfishness, envy, and anger abound as what I thought would be fun and whimsical tales spiral into murder, arson, and well... more murder.

You'll go through each character's story in a series of puzzles. Each character has their own unique level, requiring you to play through The Cave three times to see them all. They are all uniquely designed and the artwork is beautiful. These puzzles range from a dark, creepy, London mansion, to a carnival, and even have you traveling across time. Yes, this is all confined within The Cave. Think that's crazy? Other things you'll stumble upon in the cave include, but are definitely not limited to a UFO, bi-planes, space shuttles, and even the RMS Titanic.

The carnival is a beautifully designed level, and a good place to start for budding adventure game enthusiasts.

These puzzels are just the right length, in my opinion, and showcase each character's unique ability. One character can become invincible from environmental dangers, another can warp through walls, and there is a whole slew of other useful traits. This makes each of the unique character's puzzles possible and can make the other "common" puzzles more boring. In between all of the character's levels there are puzzles that you will see the same no matter who you play through as, or how many times you play through. This is sort of a bummer. Sure, it extends the game by an hour and a half to two hours, and adds a story element, but it also is boring to hear the same dialogue and solve the same conundrums without any change.

Now, while I enjoyed the length, artwork, and charm of each character's level, I did not always enjoy the gaps in difficulty. The time traveler's stage is not for the beginner adventure game player; the carnival was a cake-walk by comparison. There were a few times that even adventure game logic wasn't solving the issues I was having. Turning to the internet after hitting a brick wall made short work of any issues, but if you don't like using external sources to help you, then good luck!

As the monk, the game will offer you these bits of knowledge, some much more useful than others...

The Cave's strongest attribute is also its biggest weakness: its narration. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved the narration when it was there. The Cave is a mesmerizing character due to its witty quips, ominous predictions, and suave voice. So what's the problem? Well, notice how I said, "...when it was there"? That's the issue. There isn't enough of it. You'll come into a level, it'll talk for a minute. About halfway though, another minute. At the end, congrats, another minute. This makes those situations where you feel like you're going no where, with no clue of where to even look next, all the more apparent because the Cave doesn't chime in. He silently sits and waits while you run around in him. Also, the repetition of all the same dialogue in the "common" stages is a real drag.

Pros:

Beautiful artwork

I didn't run into any technical issues

Amazingly witty dialogue

Cons:

Repetition of "common" levels

Some solutions are way too hard to find, passing from the realm of challenging to frustrating

Not nearly enough of that amazingly witty dialogue I was talking about

SCORE:

7.5/10

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